New Croke Park deal 'has not tackled unequal pay'

Sinn Féin Finance spokesman, Pearse Doherty has said the Government has failed to make the proposed new Croke Park deal fair by tackling what he called the massive pay inequalities across the public service.

He said the public service unions would make up their own minds on how to vote on the proposed deal.

Earlier, Minister for Transport, Sport and Tourism Leo Varadkar said the Government will not reward groups who walked out of the talks with special concessions.

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On RTÉ’s This Week Mr Varadkar said he hopes the majority of public service unions will accept the proposed deal and that any unions that vote against it will accept the majority decision.

The Minister said it was always the Government plan that there would be concessions for unions that engaged in the talks process and that this resulted in measures including alleviation of the pension levy for lower paid workers and concessions on early retirement.